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Topic: VDR Setup Issue (Read 14352 times)

I have been working on a linuxmce install for a while and I must say its a great accomplishment to have so many bits of software integrated into one system. Now I have the system set up and have added my vista shares, I can play movies and music from my shares but I am still battling a bit with the TV. I am sure this is a noob issue but I was hoping someone could help. I have been using the forums to get info and basically I have been trying Myth and apparently (according to totallymaxed who seems to be a bit of a legend) I should be using VDR here in the UK. I have managed to change to VDR and added the vdradmin-am page, I have all of that set up but still get no tv. Perhaps I have the wrong type of card for this type of signal but I did have to change a few things like my sources.list had archive.ubuntu.com instead of old-releases (stuff like that) before I could get things working. I checked my channels.conf file and everything seems to be right (the right channels are listed for a UK digital freeview signal. I am using a hauppauge pvr 150 card (the TV in socket). I can't seem to find any info on initializing the feed or setting the incoming socket...what other info do you guys need to help me? In vdradmin-am it says - no EPG information available.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I am using a build from the Gutsy DVD and am still quite new to linux although I have been using ubuntu since dapper I have only really used it as a desktop.

I have been working on a linuxmce install for a while and I must say its a great accomplishment to have so many bits of software integrated into one system. Now I have the system set up and have added my vista shares, I can play movies and music from my shares but I am still battling a bit with the TV. I am sure this is a noob issue but I was hoping someone could help. I have been using the forums to get info and basically I have been trying Myth and apparently (according to totallymaxed who seems to be a bit of a legend) I should be using VDR here in the UK. I have managed to change to VDR and added the vdradmin-am page, I have all of that set up but still get no tv. Perhaps I have the wrong type of card for this type of signal but I did have to change a few things like my sources.list had archive.ubuntu.com instead of old-releases (stuff like that) before I could get things working. I checked my channels.conf file and everything seems to be right (the right channels are listed for a UK digital freeview signal. I am using a hauppauge pvr 150 card (the TV in socket). I can't seem to find any info on initializing the feed or setting the incoming socket...what other info do you guys need to help me? In vdradmin-am it says - no EPG information available.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I am using a build from the Gutsy DVD and am still quite new to linux although I have been using ubuntu since dapper I have only really used it as a desktop.

Thanks guys, I am SOOO close!!! I can almost taste the freeview!

CheersSput

Hi there,

Your basic problem is that the Hauppauge PVR-150 is not a DVB card it is an analog TV card. You will need to add at least one (but ideally at least two) DVB-T or DVB-S tuner card to your Core.

The following DVB cards are suitable and work with LinuxMCE-0710 (in some cases with additional software updates);

Totallymaxed - do you have any feel for how well the KWorld 399U deals with weaker signals? As you may remember, I have been using the Nova-T-500 for some time, but don't really watch TV through it (use the TV tuner instead) because it doesn't seem to deal well with signals that are not very strong (even with the lna turned on), whereas my TV tuner has no difficulty at all with the same signals. I understand that this is partly because the signal is divided into 2 tuners, and partly because there is only a single amplifier for both. But even though I had a professional install a new antenna and cable, and direct it as well as possible to get the best possible signal, and that I am no more than 10kms from the transmitters, and have installed a signal booster, I still cannot get stable video through the card.

I'm wondering how well this USB stick deals with similar situations....

Totallymaxed - do you have any feel for how well the KWorld 399U deals with weaker signals? As you may remember, I have been using the Nova-T-500 for some time, but don't really watch TV through it (use the TV tuner instead) because it doesn't seem to deal well with signals that are not very strong (even with the lna turned on), whereas my TV tuner has no difficulty at all with the same signals. I understand that this is partly because the signal is divided into 2 tuners, and partly because there is only a single amplifier for both. But even though I had a professional install a new antenna and cable, and direct it as well as possible to get the best possible signal, and that I am no more than 10kms from the transmitters, and have installed a signal booster, I still cannot get stable video through the card.

I'm wondering how well this USB stick deals with similar situations....

Well as ever its impossible to be precise about what you would experience in your location with the Kworld. But as ever for reasons that I have never had adequately explained all DVB-T and many DVB-S tuners have far less sensitive tuners than even the cheapest DVB STB... they also seem to be more sensitive to any imperfections in the received signal.

The Kworld is no better and no worse in this respect I am afraid... at home I get excellent reception from it. In the office here we get some artifacts on screen. The key thing is that the Kworld is much more stable as a USB device than the T500. I cant say its 100% usb stable but it is much better than the T500.

Cool thanks for that Andrew! I will have to buy one, is there a card where I can use 1 for DVB-T (freeview?) and Sky? And can you suggest a card that you would prefer to use (of course cheaper is better for me as long as the video quality is good...our signal strength is quite good in our area between 50 - 90% ...

Cool thanks for that Andrew! I will have to buy one, is there a card where I can use 1 for DVB-T (freeview?) and Sky? And can you suggest a card that you would prefer to use (of course cheaper is better for me as long as the video quality is good...our signal strength is quite good in our area between 50 - 90% ...

Cheers for the advice.

There are cards that will have multiple front-ends to DVB-S/DVB-T and DVB-S but none that I am aware that will currently allow you to do a combination of those simultaneously. That sometimes a hardware limitation and in some cases a software one. I would suggest sticking with a single function card and trying to get at least two tuners of whatever type you choose.

As for Sky there are no legal ways to watch Sky using non-Sky hardware. We can't discuss anything relating to the infringement or reverse engineering of CA (Conditional Access) systems here from Sky or any other provider here.

You can legally control, stream or re-distribute the HDMI or other video output of a Sky Digibox to multiple rooms and there are other threads here where this has been discussed at length - do a search here for those.

WinTV-Nova-T PCI (I think this only has one tuner)WinTV-Nova-TD 500 (Dual tuner as you recommended)

Would you suggest the latter or would either one be fine? I will order it for delivery tomorrow whichever you sugegst!

About the sky signal, I do have a sky box and pay for the service, I just wanted to output the sky through my Hybrid but I will check the forums for this as it follows the freeview on my priority list.

I just remembered I have a WinTV-PVR-USB2, and I think that does digital TV, I will check this forum again tonight when I get home in case you know I am wrong but it seems to be pretty much PnP in lmce.

the hauppauge site says:The WinTV-PVR-USB2 turns your PC or laptop into a digital video recorder

And I am hoping the 'digital' means the input type instead of the captured analog stream...

WinTV-Nova-T PCI (I think this only has one tuner)WinTV-Nova-TD 500 (Dual tuner as you recommended)

Would you suggest the latter or would either one be fine? I will order it for delivery tomorrow whichever you sugegst!

About the sky signal, I do have a sky box and pay for the service, I just wanted to output the sky through my Hybrid but I will check the forums for this as it follows the freeview on my priority list.

The Nova-TD 500 is the 'Diversity' model of the T500 that I believe is now supported but in the past these 'Diversity' models have caused problems as they do not use the same chipset as the 'normal' T500. On the other hand the standard T500 model is plug-n-play but does suffer some problems under 0710 as it uses onboard usb based tuners and an onboard usb hub...the tuners on this card have always suffered from usb disconnects periodically (search the Forum for numerous threads on this). I would suggest looking at other options like the Kworld DVB-T 399U (Dual tuner DVB-T) as this gets you two tuners and these are pretty well priced currently if you hunt around ;-)

Ah ok thats cool I will go with the Kworld DVB-T 399U - Are there any issues with using a usb 'stick' type device? Does it encode the signal or use the processor? I have a dual core (think AMD 5000+) processor though. Thanks for the advice, I checked the forums and the USB disconnect issue seems to be one hell of a headache!

Ah ok thats cool I will go with the Kworld DVB-T 399U - Are there any issues with using a usb 'stick' type device? Does it encode the signal or use the processor? I have a dual core (think AMD 5000+) processor though. Thanks for the advice, I checked the forums and the USB disconnect issue seems to be one hell of a headache!

When using a USB stick based tuner the data from the stick is passed over the USB bus obviously (if you had a large number of USB tuners attached this way you could potentially flood the USB bus with data...but it would be many more than two tuners).

The AMD 5000+ should be fine by the way - I use a Kworld in my home system and I only have a single core Pentium.

Ok I got it shipped this morning, installed the v4l deb and restarted, I still have no signal? I am using a rooftop aerial and I know it works because its the cable I have plugged into another TV most of the time. Wondering where I can go to check that the device is installed correctly. FYI I installed from the DVD if that makes any difference.

I went into the VDR admin page and uploaded the conf file for UK_london and I can see the channels listed in the vdr homepage...I feel as though I am so close now.

Ok it looks as though the device has not been picked up. In the web admin page, I checked the media director settings and there were 2 pvr-150 entries. I removed them but from the drop-down box, I don't see the K-World device. I think I am going to start again from fresh.

I did try to set my settings using Konsole as well, stopping VDR and using these instructions http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/VDR but after some issues and a reboot, vdr doesnt seem to be running any more. No worries, I will report back once I have finished the rebuild...

This is what I get when trying to tune to any of the 'nearby' frequencies. I am near hemel hempstead so guess its either oxford or crystal palace. Still not sure if the device is being picked up correctly. If I try to upload the conf file (uk.london.channels), it gives me all of the channel listings but I am unable to actually get any feed. I am sure I would need to see the device available in pluto admin but I see nothing that links in with KWorld...any ideas?